Today I was faced with one of the worst events that you could possibly happen…. A moment of dread… The moment when you feel both upset and angry at the same time. I will explain more.
I was asked to make an urgent phone call to a lady who had helped me when I was a child, who I looked up to, who should be having a relatively peaceful life being of my parents generation. I returned the call as soon as I could. It was terrible. I could feel and hear the pain in her voice. Her partner had been sanctioned, he wasn’t given any advice from Ashton Jobcentre, every form that he filled in for hardship payments that we had advised him to get at our demonstrations had “gone missing” even though he had handed them in personally. Ashton Jobcentre refuse to give claimants receipts….. But every one had gone missing. At the end of his tether and feeling that he couldn’t take the pain, cold and hunger anymore he tried to take his own life. Luckily he was found in time and taken to hospital.
Why is this happening? Why are they being allowed to get away with this? Everyone’s life is valuable but since when was Ashton Jobcentre given the task of deciding that a persons life isn’t valuable therefore they should be pushed to the ultimate level where they want to take their life? It’s wrong. It will always be wrong.
As for the Jobcentre staff responsible well they were only doing their job…. Now where have we heard this before?
Please come and join us on Thursday for our usual demonstration. We are having a Halloween theme… Please come but come in peace. Remember that we are fighting for the people of Ashton under lyne and Tameside to be treated decently and with respect.
Jobcentre staff who feel that the sanctioning system is cruel and inhumane please join us. Show Iain Duncan smith that you are not happy with this regime.
Peace x

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.